Topology Inference from BGP Routing Dynamics

This paper describes a method of inferring logical
relationships between
network prefixes within an Autonomous System (AS) using only
passive monitoring of BGP messages.
By clustering these prefixes based upon similarities between
their update times, we create a hierarchy linking the prefixes
within the larger AS.
We can frequently
identify groups of prefixes routed to the same ISP Point of Presence (PoP), despite
the lack of identifying information in the BGP
messages. Similarly, we observe disparate prefixes under
common organizational control, or with long shared network paths.
In addition to discovering interesting network characteristics, our
passive method facilitates topology discovery by potentially reducing
the number of active probes required in traditional traceroute-based
Internet mapping mechanisms.